


The Intruder

by Limecola



Category: A Nightmare on Elm Street (Movies 1984-1994), A Nightmare on Elm Street - All Media Types
Genre: Dreams and Nightmares, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-30
Updated: 2019-07-30
Packaged: 2020-07-25 22:49:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20033638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Limecola/pseuds/Limecola
Summary: Set when Freddy was 13 or 14 years old.





	The Intruder

The television set buzzed with static, sending tiny flickers of light across the dark room and lulling Freddy into a half-doze. The last channel had gone off the air a while ago. He knew that Underwood would come stumbling through the door any minute now, angry to find Freddy daring to cross his line of sight at this hour, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. It was worth it to put off going to bed a little longer.

Freddy yawned and scooched forward a little, sinking deeper into the armchair. The yellow foam blooming out from the ripped seams smelled bad, but it was soft.

In the backyard, all kinds of bugs were crying in the long grass. Something bigger rustled through the hollow stalks, and Freddy wondered if there was a rat out catching crickets.

Suddenly, there was a loud _crunch_ from the front of the house.

Freddy opened his eyes as it repeated. It sounded like someone beginning to slowly walk up the gravel driveway. He considered bolting up the stairs – it wasn’t too late to feign sleeping. But his body just didn’t want to move, and he didn’t try to force it.

There was one more slow _crunch_, then the apparent footsteps sped up alarmingly fast. Freddy sat bolt upright. But when the sound of running continued without the accompanying creak of the front door, he relaxed just a little.

It wasn’t a long driveway. A dog was probably running circles in the gravel, trying to catch something.

The sound grew louder and more more frantic, and was joined by echoes, as if it was coming from multiple sources. Freddy’s body steadily regained its tension. Two dogs? Three?

A child’s shrieking laugh reached Freddy’s ears, and he began to panic. The sounds were so close.

He willed himself to look around, but he was frozen. The child shrieked with laughter again, right behind him, right in his ear-

Suddenly all he could see was red light, he was scrambling, sliding, terrified…

All at once he realized that his hands were trying to grip plastic. Firehouse red, curved plastic. He was in a tube- no, the tunnel. At the playground.

The world righted itself into a manageably recognizable shape, and Freddy saw the shadows of a couple of kids running underneath the tunnel, laughing and play-screaming as they chased each other.

Shakily, Freddy lay on his back to catch his breath. The plastic tunnel glowed bright with the morning sun, and he could hear birds over the racket of the children. Despite the heat, his old watch said it was only 6:00am. What kind of psychopaths bring their kids to the park at this hour on a Sunday?

When the memory of the dream started to fade, Freddy crawled out of the tunnel and left the park, trying his best to look inconspicuous. The group of kids and the pair of women watching over them from the picnic table stopped what they were doing to stare until he rounded a corner out of sight.

Freddy shuffled down the sidewalk, his back stiff from sleeping at a weird angle. Maybe at the school he could doze off for a bit in the soccer field now that the dew was gone. He still had at least a few hours to kill before he could go back to Howard’s place and pretend like he had gone home for the night.


End file.
